If you and a partner have had your loan for a number of years you may each be enjoying the benefits of double Miras

If you and a partner have had your loan for a number of years, you may each be enjoying the benefits of (double) Miras but if you take out a new mortgage you will be restricted to one lot of relief.Equally, if, in the past, you took out a home improvement loan you may have qualified for Miras. It is important to know, however, that if you paid a similar charge on your old mortgage you will not receive a refund.As well as redemption penalties on your existing mortgage, also look out for such penalties on any new deal. M'learned friends will also be involved and solicitors' fees can be substantial.If you are borrowing more than 75 per cent of the value of the property the new lender will also ask for a mortgage indemnity insurance guarantee premium (or MIG, often referred to as a high loan-to-value premium).This one-off charge buys a policy that protects the lender in case you default on the loan. It could be worth staying put to avoid spending several hundred pounds just to shave a few pounds off your headline interest rate.The cost of switching lenders soon mounts up. First, there could well be a fee because you settled your original loan early: you may find yourself with a bill for six months' interest.Your new lender will need to confirm the value of your property: another bill It may also charge an arrangement fee of, say, pounds 250.

If you remortgage with the same organisation you immediately save on many of the fees. That said, you may have to go a fair way down the road of applying for a mortgage with another lender before yours comes up with the goods.It should also be noted that your lender does not have to come up with a lower rate for its deal to be your best bet. Institutions are keen to hang on to customers, so if you tell them you are looking around for a better deal, they are almost certain to try to retain your loyalty with attractive proposals. Even if you can get a better deal it is important that you isolate both the right product and the right provider. The wide range on offer means it is important to shop around.The best place to start the search for a better remortgage package is your lender. If you are in negative equity, for example, it is highly unlikely you will save anything.

This is because with a negative equity mortgage (see facing feature) you will not get the same interest rate discounts and there will be the cost of taking out a new mortgage indemnity guarantee. BORROWERS do not have to look far to see advertisements encouraging them to remortgage their home. With so few properties changing hands, lenders are making up for the lack of new customers by competing for the business of those who already have a loan on a property with a range of discounted and fixed-rate offers. Choose the right package and you could trim healthy amounts off your monthly mortgage payments. When you consider that the standard variable mortgage rate is 7.25 per cent and that discounts of 5 per cent off these rates are readily available, it is easy to see how big savings could be made. Not everyone will benefit from remortgaging, however. Such demutualisations are likely to be catalysts for deciding what to do with any orphan assets, so policyholders could get free shares and special bonuses..

If mutual companies have large orphan assets, then there is no conflict of interest with shareholders. The question is whether the mutuals will decide to distribute any orphan assets. But they may have less to distribute because of previously paying out more profit to policyholders.But aren't mutuals planning to demutualise?Yes. However, analysts can only base their recommendations on guesstimates. It is possible that they have underestimated the enhanced dividend potential to shareholders. Alternatively, any benefit to shareholders may not be passed on in the form of a dividend. It may be used to invest and expand the business, for instance by taking over another company.Are mutual life insurance companies laden with orphan assets?Mutual companies are owned by their policyholders, "proprietary" companies by their shareholders.

The prospect of a windfall dividend payment is a factor that will tend to push up the share price. The problem is that most life companies will already have been well researched by City analysts and any expected windfall will already be built into the share price. Similarly, if you are buying a second-hand policy, then even after recent price rises you might still be getting a good deal.What about buying the shares of an insurance company?In principle, you could benefit; in practice, you may well not. A variety of factors affect the current share value of any quoted company.